Writing for All Audiences - Professional Techniques for Video Game Writing - page 94

In addition, be conscious of how the wording turns out in any game you work on,
particularly those with Barbie-like imagery or activities such as exercise and locations
such as gyms. Games that could potentially add to body-image issues are not fun
to play. Games like Wii Sports , particularly the Wii Fitness test, incorporate exercise
in a way that's not gender-specific. The writing mostly relates to instructions and
responses to your standings in the activities, which are always supportive, even if you
miss (“Homerun!� and “Nice try�).
Really, here, the key can be not trying to write specifically for females, but rather
to write in a way that remains open to everyone and doesn't turn gender into a fetish
to be exploited. If your game doesn't have the room for characters to be at the
forefront, then consider small ways you can add to the overall experience of the game
that will appeal to all genders.
10.3 Ethnicity
During the “Top Ten Game Research Findings� session at the 2007 Game Developers
Conference, a study titled “Self-Portrayal in a Simulated Life� pointed out that the
majority of players polled had a desire for more diverse game characters in positive
roles. Certainly, commercial games are not completely devoid of diversity, but when
you look closer at the roles of these characters and the writing that goes into them,
it's hard to find a racially diverse player character hero .
If you're all for players making their own choices, try working on games that fit
into genres with character customization. Just make sure that someone on the team
asks for a variety of physical builds, facial builds, skin tones, hair colors and styles, eye
colors and styles, and so on. The most ironic part of the Electronic Arts NHL series
is the apparent lack of First Nations-friendly skin tones, even though hockey is very
popular among that demographic in Canada. Saints Row features several options,
understanding it's a gang game set in a city based on Detroit and Chicago. Oblivion ,
a role-playing game in the Elders Scrolls series, has the widest range of options and
also includes fantasy-based races.
Races (or rather species in some cases) that are fictional are often still based on
real races. World of Warcraft draws from several ethnicities, incorporating everything
from trolls with Jamaican accents to dwarves with Scottish accents. WoW can get
away with this usage because the characters are cartoons and the representations cre-
ate ethical implications of the killing and gathering quests that remain a staple for
fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online games. You'll face limitations in creat-
ing your own fictional language or accents if your game includes voiceovers or special
fonts. Even using existing languages can be a strain, but there are clever devices such
as opening dialog in the heritage language and then gradually shifting to the main
language of your audience, which will depend on your game's localization.
For games with multiple character-selection options for cooperative or compet-
itive play, you can include diverse characters, but this use of ethnicity is often tied
to character skills, abilities, traits, stats, and so on. Examples of this can be found